Adjustable goalpost with audience control

ABSTRACT

A goalpost for football games and the like has a pair of parallel uprights that may be moved toward and away from one another by a motor driven mechanism. A control system for driving the motor has an input signal based on the sound level produced by spectators at a game and/or the number of Internet messages generated by TV spectators. The spectators produce a crowd roar or Internet messages when a kick through the uprights is to occur.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority of U.S. Provisional Application 61/943,559 filed Feb. 24, 2014, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a goalpost for use in football games and the like wherein the spacing between the uprights is adjustable and controlled by audience participation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

American football games employ goalposts at each end of the field which comprise a pair of spaced uprights through which a player must kick the football to improve his team's score in the games. These goalposts have a pair of spaced apart uprights which the football must go through to score.

It has been proposed to provide goalposts in which the spacing between the uprights is manually adjustable, usually for practice purposes, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,375,585. In American football there are generally two situations in which a team may attempt to score by having a player kick a football between the uprights of the goalposts. One situation is a field goal in which the player may score, and typically receive three points, by kicking the ball from her team's present position in the field. The other situation is the point after touchdown in which a player kicks the football from a fixed distance after his team has scored a touchdown and the team receives one point if the ball goes between the uprights. In professional football, the attempts at the point after touchdown are successful such a very high percentage of the time that they are almost automatic unless the kick is blocked. Because of the high success of the after touchdown point kicks, that situation tends to become an automatic and almost boring feature of the game.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a system in which the spacing between the goalposts is controlled by a drive system and the spectators at the football game can control the distance between the uprights by cheering or other noisemaking during either the after touchdown point attempt or the field goal attempt. This spectator participation in the game would greatly increase the significance of attending the game in person as opposed to watching the game over television or the like.

In an alternate embodiment of the present invention the TV audience may participate by sending messages over the Internet prior to a kick to control the spacing between the uprights and thus the difficulty of a successful kick. This might use some standard service such as Twitter and a control system which would receive the Internet signals and based on their number automatically adjust the distance between the uprights of the goalpost.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention the spacing between the uprights is controlled by a drive system employing a screw extending along the crossbar which supports the two uprights. The screw preferably has a right-hand pitch at one end and a left-hand pitch at the other end. Rotation of the screw moves the two bars in synchronism toward or away from one another. The screw is controlled by a motor which is in turn powered by the control system that senses the volume of sound generated by the spectators at the football game at the time of the kick, or in the alternative embodiment of the invention accumulates the number of Internet messages received at that time.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other objectives, advantages, and applications of the present invention will be made clear by the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a goalpost assembly with adjustable distances between the uprights which may be employed with the present invention; and

FIG. 2 is a detailed view of the screw drive assembly, partially broken away.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

As illustrated in FIG. 1, a preferred embodiment of the goalpost with adjustable spacing between the uprights employs a vertical post 10 having its lower end fixed relative to the playing field. The upper end of the post 10 supports a horizontally extending crossbar 14 having a motor based drive system 16 supported on one of its ends. A pair of sliders 18 and 20 are supported on the crossbar 14 for movement along the crossbar under control of the drive system 16. The slider 18 carries a vertically upright crossbar 22 while the slider 20 carries a vertically extending crossbar 24. The drive system 16 acts through the sliders 18 and 20 to adjust the spacing of the uprights 22 and 24.

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates the drive system for the uprights 22 and 24.

A sensor 30, which could be a sound volume sensor, or in the alternative embodiment a generator of a signal proportional to the number of Internet messages received, or some combination of both, provides its output to an electronic control system 32, which may constitute a programmed general purpose computer, which generates signals for driving the motor 16. The motor 16 in turn rotates a screw 34 which extends through the length of the upright 14.

As the control signal from the input element 30 increases, the screw 34 is driven in a first direction, driving the uprights toward one another, and as the control signal decreases, the screw is driven in the opposite direction to return the uprights 22 and 24 to their normal position. The sliders 18 and 20 have nuts or the like at their lower ends (not shown) which engage the screw and drive the uprights 22 and 24 to their controlled positions. 

Having disclosed my invention, I claim:
 1. An audience controlled adjustable goalpost assembly, comprising: a pair of spaced vertical uprights; a horizontal crossbar supporting the lower ends of the uprights; a drive system for engaging the lower ends of the uprights and adjusting their horizontal spacing from one another; and a drive system controlled by a signal generated by the audience for a game employing the adjustable goalpost assembly for controlling the spacing between the uprights.
 2. The adjustable goalpost assembly of claim 1, wherein the audience participation signal is generated by the volume of the sound generated by the audience.
 3. The adjustable goalpost assembly of claim 1, wherein the audience control signal is generated by messages sent by the audience over the Internet.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the spacing between the uprights is controlled by a rotatable screw which closes the spacing between the uprights as the audience participation signal increases and increases the spacing of the uprights as the audience participation signal decreases. 